424 abstracts: zoology 



principles that should underlie all condensing and generalizing of topo- 

 graphic facts on reduced scales. Until these principles are formulated 

 and have become a fundamental part of every topographer's equipment, 

 the signal lack of uniformity in topographic portrayal that character- 

 izes our maps today must continue to prevail, and the topographer's 

 art will not be able to lay claim to that economy of high grade production 

 which only a scientific foundation can secure. F. E. M. 



ZOOLOGY.— A review of the cephalopods of western North America. 



S. Stillman Berry. Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 



vol. 30, 1910, p. 267-336, pis. xxxii-lvi. Issued July 24, 1912. 



The purpose of this paper is not to present a monograph, nor even a 



complete catalogue of the species now living within the area indicated, 



but, as stated by its author, is rather 



to bring out of chaos and present under one cover a resume of such work 

 as has already been done, making the necessary corrections wherever 

 possible, and adding accounts of such novelties as have been brought to 

 my notice. 



Descriptions are given of all the species known to occur or reported 

 within our limits, and these have been made as full and accurate as the 

 facilities, available to me would allow. I have hoped to do this in such 

 a way that students, particularly in the Western States, will find it 

 unnecessary to have continual access to the widely scattered and often 

 unavailable literature on the subject. In a number of cases, however, 

 the attitude adopted must be understood as little more than provisional 

 in its nature, and more or less extensive revision is to be expected later, 

 especially in the case of the large and difficult genus Polypus, which here 

 attains a development scarcely to be surpassed anywhere. 



In dealing with genera or higher groups I have nowhere endeavored 

 to give complete diagnoses, but mention is made of such of their more 

 salient characteristics as may serve for at least their temporary recogni- 

 tion by the student unfamiliar with cephalopods. 



The material upon which the paper is based consists of some 600 

 specimens, contained in collections of the U. S. Fisheries Steamer Alla- 

 tross in Alaska and off the California coast; miscellaneous series in collec- 

 tions at Stanford University ; a small collection possessed by the depart- 

 ment of zoology of the University of California, and a small series of 

 octopods received from the Marine Biological Laboratory at La Jolla, 

 California, besides the private collection of the writer. The region 

 covered embraces the western shores of North America between Bering 

 Strait on the north and the Coronado Islands on the south, together with 

 the immediately adjacent waters of Bering Sea and the North Pacific 



